Power Within
by Master Potato
Summary: This story revolves around one human who seeks for the ultimate power, in order to do the same wonderful feats as pokémon did. The world is set in the past of the Pokémon world, where pokeballs didn't even exist yet.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:**

 **Allrigh this is my first and probably only attempt into making a story, feel free to provide constructive criticism!**

 **There will be multiple chapters.**

* * *

A thin fist, punching a wooden trunk repeatedly, without showing any signs of neither hesitation nor regret.

Eventually however, the thin fist's skin rips, exposing the blood and flesh hidden within. The blood starts spreading in the log, leaving a distinct red tone upon its contact as the blood flows through the trunk's imperfections and the fist bloodies from the repeated impacts.

The hand does not cease, and instead, tries to do even more impact than before, leaving injuries and exposed tendons.

This hand was not from a man, but a boy, a boy with a strange ambition, a very strong ambition, which some may have considered it insanity.

The boy was fascinated by creatures, wonderful creatures, capable of feats unimaginable by mere men and were induced naturally with these talents, on which differed greatly from one being to another.

Some could breathe fire, some could lift objects with their own mind, some could control their own aura, and some were incomprehensively fast or strong, their abilities were endless, and this was the boy's biggest and only dream:

To achieve what they could do, to be equal to them, to stand with them.

Humanity used these creatures as pets, training them, befriending them, even without possessing the potential to do what these creatures could. It angered him, but that anger was not directed towards humanity;

It was directed to himself.

His ambition was to be as strong as them, as powerful as them, as fascinating as them. His fear was immense, knowing that his limits may be pathetically low, knowing that it might be an impossible dream, knowing that despite everything he would try, everything he would do to become stronger might be worthless.

His fist ceased, bloodied from the constant impact against the trunk.

And the trunk was still intact, without any damage.

That was when the boy realized that he wouldn't be able to do one of their feats with his current power.

He would need to get stronger, and maybe he was insane after all.

But no thought was to keep him away from that ambition. The blood and wounds in his hand were just the spark for an immensurable power.

He was inside the woods and the sun was almost behind the horizon, realizing what he should do, the boy tried to wash off the blood on his hand ,covered the wounds with a piece of white cloth and returned to his village. After all they might be concerned about him being this late.

It was a long way, and his duty was bringing firewood home.

It was a small village. Upon arrival, he went into his house's storage and placed the firewood there, picking a small amount enough for cooking and entered his home.

It was a simple house of wood. The living room was connected to the entrance, there was a simple carpet on the center, a fireplace on the right wall, a table on the left wall with two benches and a chair.

The creatures mentioned earlier were called "Pokémon" as humanity named them.

Most humans or families had a pet Pokémon and his family was no exception.

He was greeted by his family's creature, whose species was a male "Lucario"

"Why are you late?" Lucario asked with a serious expression, "You never arrive this late."

"I had a problem," the boy said in a very convincing manner, walking towards the kitchen only to be stopped by Lucario's paw, who , in a very disappointed manner, let out a sigh.

"You know I can sense your aura," lucario said, "i know you're lying. I'm not an idiot."

"They're not home yet, are they?" he asked while still looking towards the kitchen;

"No they aren't, and they won't know about you being late if you tell me what happened," Lucario said. "What are these wounds on your hand?"

The boy closed his eyes for a moment, clenched his jaw, and then looked at the pokémon who was still holding his arm.

"I can't tell you," the boy answered in a serious tone, but smiling, "You'll tell them, and then I would have to explain why, and _you know_ why," he said, then lifted his arm to the same level as lucario's head, with lucario's paw still holding it, "Now, let me go."

Lucario nodded, releasing the boy's arm, in which proceeded to the kitchen.

"You can tell me, we've been friends since your family adopted me," Lucario said while watching the boy put the wood into the wood stove, "Your secret is safe. I'm only asking this because I care about you."

The boy hesitated for a moment, collecting his thoughts, and eventually looked at the Pokémon and said while staring at the ground in an ashamed manner;

"I tried to tear down a tree with my bare hands," the boy said while lifting his eyebrows and looking at Lucario, waiting for his response.

Both stared at each other for a moment in silence, then the lucario let out a suppressed chuckle and said:

"And you went so far as almost destroying your hands?" he said with a surprised smile while lifting from his chair. "Honestly that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard ever," he said whilst walking towards the boy. "You didn't even think about how they'll react when they see this blood? Also, there is blood on your face," Lucario said while taking off the white cloth (which was completely red) around the boy's hand exposing his wounds.

"These wounds are pretty ba-"

"It doesn't matter," the boy said, interrupting lucario and taking his injured hand out of the pokémon's reach, "i'm off to train," he said, now walking towards the back door.

Lucario smiled then walked towards the living room, speaking with a high voice, "Fine. Just don't push yourself too hard like last time, after all you're still injured and I don't want any trouble for me either."

The boy chuckled and opened the back door, meeting a huge grass field, going slightly downhill while covered by mountains and receiving the shine of the pale moon above.

Upon this sight, the boy got inspired, clenching his fists, lifting his injured hand in front of the pale moon.

The boy grinned angrily, with the blood streaming through his skin, feeling the pain of the cold breeze hitting his exposed flesh, questioning himself what he was about to start.

He inspired, filling his lungs witch fresh air before rushing down to the grass field, in an act to improve his stamina.


	2. Chapter 2

The years passing though time like the wind, and he spent his years in constant training, never ceasing, never hesitating.

He took on the heaviest of duties, constantly trying to improve his strength, whether be hunting alone or be it carrying the heaviest materials. His physical appearance had increased vastly in size and weight.

He never stopped working, never considered giving up, even in his worst days; he trained his body in any way he could think of;

And he always had Lucario's help; it was a rather unique case seeing a Pokémon train a human.

His family and neighbors began to look at him differently, that boy from years ago was no longer the same, they knew who he was and his personality was still there, but they had no idea what drove him into this constant state of training.

Some told him to give up, thinking he might be losing his mind, but they didn't speak of this because he was injuring himself nor because he was so ambitious to getting stronger that they were afraid he might even abandon his own humanity;

It was because, after a certain period of time, his physical strength stopped increasing.

He still trained like a mad man, whenever he had free time he trained, with all his might, be in combat or in body. But he was stuck in a barrier, he had reached his body's limit.

But he refused it; he only saw this as another challenge.

Only one being never touched this subject however, and it was Lucario.

Lucario noticed something odd in him; Even after his body reached its maximum, his aura kept increasing, and rapidly. To the point where it even surpassed his own in raw power.

That pokémon always motivated the now almost fully grown man into doing the same thing he had done before, and he was the only one that knew about his ambition.

It has been 10 years since he started his training, and he was now at the age of 17, at the peak of his youth.

One day, obsessed with their warnings, the young man travelled into the woods, to pass his time alone, where he could meditate, to think about his path.

After a long walk between an endless sea of trees, he stopped and sat down in a nearby rock, big enough so that he could sit with his legs crossed.

He held his knees and closed his eyes, debating with himself, one side of him told it was the right thing to give up, and the other told it was his dream and the only thing he always worked so hard for, and he was afraid of both of them.

If he was to give up, what would he do then? His dream was all he stood for, it would be his legacy.

But if he was to keep on fighting, how long would it take for his power to start rising again? Has he really reached the line? Was it all for nothing?

He already could hunt pokémon and take them down on his own, but he needed strategies, techniques, tools and traps. He could never take one out with his bare hands if they used their full power, his combat abilities were exceptional, and he could sense things around him thanks to Lucario's training; he was even already considered a beast in his home village.

But that wasn't enough, he needed more, he desired more, it was not all for nothing, he _became_ stronger, he was _much stronger_ than before;

But in the end, it wasn't enough. No feeling was more devastating than betting your life on something, and end up failing in the end; it _was_ an impossible dream after all.

All of his thoughts were replaced by another: he recognized that place.

The man opened his eyes, focusing on a slightly distant tree with black red lines in its trunk.

He immediately recognized it.

He remembered the pain in each punch, and the image of his tearing flesh and the distinct red of his blood running thorough the trunk.

He enjoyed that memory.

A sudden feeling rushed over him, one he had never felt before in years, followed by a single thought in his mind;

'What if...'

He knew his limits, he knew he would not make it, but something was different, somehow he knew that, if he tried again, something would happen.

The pain was constantly in his mind, but he didn't hesitate while walking towards the tree.

He readied a stance and prepared the first punch.

Meanwhile, back in his home, Lucario was sitting on one of the benches by the table; the house never changed even after all these years.

The Pokémon noticed an unusual atmosphere, he noticed the depressive look in the man's face during the day, which was already strange since he never lost hope in anything, and always had an exalted mood; so Lucario thought it was just a phase he never went thorough before.

While growing up, the man was slightly aggressive and had an strange addiction into bringing self harm, but he never injured himself foolishly and was only harmed while trying to hunt or during combat.

Lucario realized something else unusual, the man was late.

He never got late in 10 years, and even the last time he got late, it wasn't for this long; the sun was already far behind the horizon.

Lucario rushed out of his house and into the woods with his senses fully activated;

He got warned by the man that he was going to the woods, but never told why.

Everything the Pokémon could think of was: 'Did he try to take one out barehanded?'; 'Was he trying to prove himself something?' he thought while already rushing inside the woods, searching every corner he could with his own aura.

'Thankfully his aura is immense!' he thought while running as fast as he could. 'It won't take long to find him, assuming he wasn't an idiot this ti-' Lucario stopped forming the words on his head; he found what he was looking for.

Lucario stopped while kneeling down, staring at the man.

The man had his back facing towards Lucario. The man had his hand in front of his chest, and was observing it.

The pokémon watched that scene; a strong blue white light being emanated from that man, reflecting itself in the trees and foliage around him, his hand being the lightsource.

The pokemon and the man remained in silence, immobile, both stunned by the scene; after all both could feel eachother's aura, and both were highly confused.

The human's voice eventually broke the silence:

"We both know what this is," he said while resting his hand, making it visible.

His skin had ripped and his flesh was exposed, however, there were flames, small flames which danced around in the borders of the man's open skin, slowly healing itself.

"This is a surprise for me, and I know you could feel it in me," he said while turning, facing his Lucario, smiling with a face of relief. "I want to know why did you not tell me before."

"Because you wouldn't be able to control it," Lucario said while getting up, "and your aura is greater than mine in your current state."

"Fair enough," the man said while walking towards the right way home. "We are late, we shouldn't be here."

" _You_ are late, I was just looking for yo-" Lucario stopped speaking after he noticed the tree that was in front of the man;

The smell of fresh blood in the air now made sense, the tree was cracked and had half of it completely covered in red.

Maybe he didn't notice the blood before because of the man's aura light; it was a really intense light, enough for his hypothesis to make sense.

"For how long did you punch it?" Lucario asked in shock, feeling the man's aura strangely tremble with happiness.

The man grinned and said while still walking:

"Let's go home."

Lucario hesitated for a moment, but then nodded and started walking behind the man, worrying about how to make him be able to control that much power.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: I'm not going to write during weekends so dont expect any update during these days, but i will seek to check out the best ideas i can to make this story better!**

* * *

His training had changed slightly; he no longer trained to increase his physical strength, but instead trained enough for it to stay at that level, focusing more on his combat abilities and a way to control his newfound power.

He travelled through the woods every day in order to find a way to activate his new ability, but this time he always had Lucario as a companion right next to him.

They were chatting at the woods, with the man training in shadow boxing, while Lucario rested on a tree studying how his aura reacted to each movement.

"You haven't found a solution yet haven't you?" the man said while fighting the air; his voice failed slightly with the panting of his arms movements, which were fast and he was quick on his feet, maintaining a steady rhythm. "You've been analyzing me for days…" he stroke a jab, a hook and then stopped, with the hook sending a weak gust of wind thorough the environment. "I feel like you can't just explain something to me, and then have me try it."

Lucario looked surprised by the force of that hook, his body wasn't stronger, but his fists had extra power behind them.

"Yes. It's more complicated than you think," he said, then walked in front of the man. "It's like explaining a person how to love. It's not theoretical, it has to come up naturally," Lucario said and then stopped in front of his trainer.

"What exactly are you implying I should do then?" the man said while he stood up in a normal stance.

"You have to fight something in hand to hand combat, stronger than anyone you've fought before," Lucario happily, "And you know what I'm talking about," Lucario said.

The man laughed by that phrase's irony.

"You were always worried I would go out there and fight a wild pokémon barehanded, and now you are telling me to fight one?"- He asked while still smiling

"I didn't say wild," Lucario said, correcting him.

"We already fought before," the man turned, faced his back to the Pokémon.

"In sparring matches," Lucario said, smiling. "I want to fight you with everything I have."

The man stopped and stood there, while Lucario looked at him silently.

"Now, do you want me to believe you are doing this to unlock my power?" he laughed. "You just want to test me don't you?" the man looked above his shoulder, directly into the Pokémon's eyes.

Lucario chuckled.

"We'll test eachother right here, maybe something happens, and you want this too," Lucario happily said, "I'll say it's a win-win," Lucario said as he took his stance.

The man smiled and faced Lucario with his own stance, with his left hand closed at his nose's level, and the other above his forehead, with his heel above the ground and his knee slightly flexed.

Both were anxious and curious, they knew eachother's fighting style and always held back; they didn't know what would happen during that fight.

"Until one of us get knocked out," Lucario added.

It was still early morning, the sun had barely come out, the ambient had a dark blue tone and they were in the middle of the woods, ready to fight each other with everything they have.

They admired the situation, and then the Pokémon made the first move.

Rushing towards the man without hesitating, already with his paw full of energy; the man only prepared himself.

The creature put his left paw in his own right elbow, blasting the stored energy with a small spreaded explosion; but the human had dodged it with a quick sidestep while already turning his torso to his right.

Some damage had been induced in his external oblique, but it wasn't of much influence.

The man quickly leaped towards his opponent using the full strength of his heels and oblique, turning his torso to the left side while flexing his right bicep. A devastating blow aiming towards the head.

Lucario couldn't dodge that attack; all he could do was absorb most of the impact with his right paw; the impact made and extremely high noise, and was strong enough to drag him across the grass, slightly stunned.

Uncertain if that punch was intended to kill or not, he quickly recovered his composition, only to find his opponent leaping in his direction, readying the next blow.

Instead of dodging, the Pokémon ran directly towards the human, who tried to stop himself but got hit by Lucario's elbow, breaking his nose.

The man's attack missed with his fist nearly hitting the creature's upper back.

With a quick reflex, the man grabbed the pokémon's forearm, preventing its escape.

Lucario opened his paw towards the man's face, releasing an aura blast, but at the same time got hit by the man's fist directly into his stomach.

That punch was so strong it got buried in Lucario's flesh, who spat thanks to the power behind the impact.

After receiving the blast to the face, the man released the grip on the creature's forearm, which got sent flying until it hit a trunk, gasping in pain.

The man groaned. Even with his endurance, an aura blast directly towards the face at close range, even if not fully charged, was still a powerful attack.

Both stood kneeling for a moment, trying to regain their composure, with Lucario holding his stomach with one paw and the other trying to him get up, and the man was stunned, panting and groaning, checking the blood dripping from an open cut above his left eyebrow.

Lucario was almost completely recovered until he heard loud, strong footsteps in his direction; the man had already recomposed, and was running like a complete monster towards him.

Something was extremely wrong in him: his eyes had no iris, nor pupils. He looked like a complete beast.

Lucario responded to that thing's leap instantly, rolling to his right and shortly after, heard the sound of the trunk exploding.

Upon regaining his stance, Lucario checked the source of the sound, and realized that a single punch from whatever his master had turned into, destroyed half of the trees trunk, destabilizing it and eventually collapsing.

That "man" had leaped with so much strength he was still trying to stop himself from the impulse, his feet burying under the earth, lifting a big trail of dust.

Eventually he stopped, leaving a moment of silence with him kneeling down on the distance between these two.

Lucario could sense his aura, now blazing around the human, as agitated and big as a great furnace; however, it was becoming exhausted.

He stared at that immense influence, worried with what it might try next.

The silence got broken by a sudden explosion. The man was gone.

He activated his senses completely, looking around, trying to sense everything in front of him, desperate and afraid of receiving another punch; who could guarantee he would survive an impact of that level? His master was having difficulties controlling his power, maybe he didn't know his own limits, and might end up killing his own Pokémon.

Lucario managed to find the man, who was falling down at high speed, right above him.

He tried to dodge as fast as he could, but it was too late. All he could feel was an sudden impact and his face hitting the ground beneath him almost instantly before blacking out.

Lucario woke up resting on a tree, with his master sitting on a nearby rock.

Upon feeling the warm touch of sunlight right above him, he realized it was midday.

"Wh-"

"Don't ask me," His master quickly interrupted, "I don't know what happened. We were fighting normally, and all of the sudden I felt like I had unlimited power."

"Then you almost killed me," Lucario said with an arrogant voice.

"Yes," His master said with regret. "Did you find out why?"

"I broke your nose," the pokemon claimed, "At that point you had an insane amount of strength," Lucario said with a calm voice, "We can deduct your body reacts extremely aggressively to harm."

"That's great news," the man said in a sarcastic tone. "Besides, my entire body hurts," the trainer commented.

"Your aura was getting exhausted during the last moments of the fight," Lucario said looking at the ground, "Don't get me wrong, it was still powerful, but it started to leak out, as if it wasn't stable."

"So I have a limited amount of these attacks," the man claimed.

"Until you learn how to control it properly," Lucario added, "Your aura is your lifeforce. If you are consuming big amounts of your lifeforce in each attack, your body will suffer drastic consequences," he explained.

Both stood there, staring at the distinct green of grass on the ground.

The man noticed Lucario's exhausted expression.

"Mmh?"

Lucario chuckled and said, "Nothing, it's just..." the pokémon put his paw at the back of his neck. "My neck hurts really bad."

Both laughed.

"I'm sorry," the human said, smiling.

"Shouldn't we be back already?" Lucario asked.

"Yes," the man said, then got up, "I was waiting for your wake."

Both returned, excited about the first progress in a long time, already planning what they would do when they fight side by side.


	4. Chapter 4

They spent numerous weeks training and deciding what to do, until both decided to travel around the world, looking for the most powerful of all creatures.

The man had acquired this power, which might even kill him if not used properly, and was confident about his decision.

Both the man and the Pokémon were at home, with the man telling his parents what they planned.

The father didn't agree with this.

"So, you are telling me you want to leave the village and take Lucario with you?" The father said indignantly, "We need you in this village, you are our best hunter!"

"Father, I won't discuss this," the man said while preparing his stuff. "You have no right over me," He said whilst put the supplies on his back. "I gave you everything you have, and I thank you for taking care of me," He said whilst walking towards the exit.

"Son…"

"Bye," The man said, already crossing the exit, facing the lucario resting on the wall.

"That's all?" Lucario asked with a confused and surprised expression.

"He knows I'm right," He said whilst walking, with lucario following shortly after.

They began their travel, going thorough nature.

When they needed to eat they ate, when they felt thirst they drank, going straight towards their objective: to find legends.

His ambition became bigger: simply becoming as strong as a Pokémon wasn't enough anymore. He sought for something even bigger this time: Those legends he heard while still a child, pokémon so powerful they could change the weather, change a population's mind, being the incarnation of a concept of nature and many others.

He knew it was pointless. All he would acquire was more power and, maybe, glory.

But it was addicting.

Eventually, on a random day, they were silently crossing a forest in the southern region, when Lucario asked:

"Back at our first serious fight," Lucario broke the silence "Why didn't I die when you knocked me out?" Lucario asked curiously "You destroyed a trunk with a punch, why was my head still intact after that last hit?"

"You got surprised by my aura," The man claimed "I wanted to test that sudden strength I felt, so I destroyed that trunk by throwing everything I had at it," he said. "After I jumped I only landed on you, I didn't have enough strength to deliver another blow," he explained.

"So if I dodged that landing…"

"You would have won, yes," He answered quickly "I still can barely control this, even after all the training we had in the weeks that followed."

"I avoided talking about that fight earlier, but since we touched the subject, I want to know more," Lucario stated and started thinking about the details of the fight. "I didn't notice your hand after you punched the tree. What was its state?"- He asked.

"It got severely damaged, but not as bad as before," the man answered. "It was already healed when you woke up."

"So I could have won?"- Lucario asked

"Yes, easily," he answered. "My aura let your guard down."

"I had my senses to the max after that jump," The pokémon claimed "There's no way I got distracted!"

"I sensed your aura," the man explained, "It looked quite surprised."

Both reached the end of the forest and stopped.

They were greeted with a long and rough canyon, which seemed to end at the horizon and were at the edge of one of the canyon's slits.

"Perfect," the man said in a sarcastic manner. "We'll find very few resources from now on," he added as he looked down the slit.

"I thought you liked challenges," Lucario said, lifting his eyebrows. "Isn't this what you wanted? " The pokémon said, looking at his trainer.

"I wanted battles," the man said walking backwards. "I never fought a Pokémon seriously besides you."

"Wait," Lucario said as he watched his trainer walk backwards, "what are you doing?" Lucario asked.

The man stopped and said:

"I'm going to try something," the man said. "I don't know if this will work, so stay alert."

Lucario watched whilst the human started hopping, looking at the other edge of the fissure.

"Are you trying to-"

"Yes," the man answered before his pokémon could finish his question.

The man proceeded to rush, running as fast as he could before jumping with both of his legs, destroying a portion of the ground with the impact of his legs and blasting off into the air.

"Are you mad?!" The pokémon yelled as he watched his master fly his way into the other side of the fissure.

"Yes!" His master yelled back.

The man slowly flailed his arms around the air in an attempt to stabilize his landing.

It wasn't very effective.

Lucario cringed as he watched his master hit the ground numerous times.

The man stopped, groaning in pain on the ground.

"Are you okay?!" Lucario asked unsure.

His master didn't say anything, only letting out a thumbs up as he got up.

"What were you thinking?!" Lucario asked, completely confused. "You could have just walked around it!"

"It's faster this way!" the man answered.

"You're going to die this way!" the pokémon yelled. "What are you talking about?!"

The man started to rush again before jumping back the same way.

"I've done something like this before remember?!" the man yelled while airborne.

Thankfully, he managed to land this time, sliding across the ground while trying to brake.

Lucario was surprised he landed with no problems this time.

"In our first fight," the man said whilst he patted the dust in his clothing, "I jumped high above you, remember?" he asked.

"Then why did you crash into the ground this time?" Lucario asked confused.

"Because last time I jumped whilst standing still," the man explained, "With barely any impulse."

"Won't you waste a lot of energy?" The lucario asked.

"I can take it," the man claimed, "Besides, this will be part of my training," the man said whilst indicating the lucario to hop on his back.

"Whatever you want then," Lucario said, then did what his trainer wanted.

With a strong impulse, the man jumped highly above the ground, crossing the gap and landed firmly, sliding briefly on the ground.

Lucario was not accustomed to this kind of impact and felt sick.

"Are you okay?" his master asked.

"Yes," Lucario said, shaking his head, "I just need to get used to this a little," he added.

"Get ready then," the man said, readying another jump.

Lucario felt the impact again, but this time he was prepared, and could pay attention to the feeling of the soft breeze hitting his fur.

It felt amazing; the vision of being high into the air whilst moving above the slits was incredible.

They stayed in this rhythm for a while: jumping and sliding in the landing before jumping again, across the gaps, travelling through the canyon in a rather quick pace.

Until Lucario sensed the aura of a flying being moving rapidly in their direction: the aura of a pidgeot.

"Look out!" he yelled to his master.

The man looked at the flying pidgeot then quickly threw lucario higher in the air, with the man taking the full hit in the arm whilst still in the air.

Lucario had his trajectory change with the purpose of keeping him in the air for a longer period of time, but the pidgeot saw that as an opportunity and began turning itself in the air.

Lucario started processing every option he had at that situation immediately whilst the pidgeot changed his original target, with his current target being lucario.

The man hit the ground on his back, later adjusting his next landing with his left arm, sliding along the rocks before yelling:

"Block!" the man yelled to his lucario.

Lucario managed to successfully block the pidgeot's attack right on time, with both of his arms; however, the steel type pokémon was now falling towards one of the canyon's slits.

The man ran as fast as he could before jumping, trying to save his pokémon from harm, catching Lucario in mid air and latching onto one of the slit's walls.

"Are you okay?" the man asked Lucario with his own hand buried on the wall.

"We're both injured," Lucario said, resting his arms. "He took us by surprise."

The man noted the injury on his forearm: an open cut with tiny blue flames trying to cover it. Lucario also had cuts on his arms, but they weren't as bad as his master's.

"We can't make another mistake like this," the man said. "Hold on me."

Lucario held himself on his master, who let go of the wall, landing themselves at the bottom of the slit.

"We should have an advantage here," the man stated, letting go of the lucario. "I thought flying types were super effective against fighting types," the man said. "Why are your wounds so light?"

"Because I'm also a steel type," Lucario explained, "Steel is resistant to flying types."

"Now that's certainly…" Lucario's trainer looked up. "… something."

The pidgeot was looking at them whilst in the air, without advancing.

"He's waiting for something," the man stated.

Lucario sensed the pidgeot's aura for a moment.

"Someone," Lucario corrected.

The man had his attention drawn by a figure, slightly distant, walking at the bottom of the slit. It was a charizard.

Lucario noted a noise behind him, and quickly checked what it was: it was a graveler.

"Are you happy now?" Lucario asked to his master.

The man laughed and said, "Be quiet and get ready."


	5. Chapter 5

Both readied themselfes for the upcomming battle.

"They have at least one trainer, that's certain," the man said. "Even if we find him now, we must take care of these pokémon first."

"Can you take down the enemy pidgeot?" Lucario asked to his trainer.

"Yes," he answered. "I'll focus entirely on it," the man said.

"Charizard!" a mysterious voice yelled, "Use Flame Burst!"

"Pidgeot!" another voce yelled, "Use Wing Attack!"

The charizard inhaled deeply and used Flame Burst. The pidgeot used Wing Attack, aiming his attack above his opponents in case they jumped.

Both the man and his lucario jumped instantly in response to Charizard's attack, but were surprised by the pidgeot's speed.

The opponent pidgeot's Wing Attack connected with the man, but the man quickly grabbed its leg thanks to his reflexes.

"Iron Tail!" the man yelled to his pokémon whilst holding onto the pidgeot.

"Graveler" a third voice yelled, "Use Bulldoze!"

Lucario obeyed and fell into the enemy graveler with iron tail, and Graveler responded by using Bulldoze.

Both attacks were super effective, with Lucario winning the damage trade; the graveler fainted instantly, and Lucario was slower and injured.

The enemy pidgeot and the man were struggling in the air. Lucario's trainer kept trying to hold the enemy pidgeot's wings in an attempt to stop it from flying further. Eventually, the man managed to land a strong punch in the pidgeot's head, sending it towards the slit's wall.

The man landed with a roll, whilst the pidgeot crashed into the ground, trying to recover itself from the previous hit.

The man watched his stunned opponent try to recover, and then, an orange light behind him caught his attention.

Charizard had used Flare Blitz, and was aiming at Lucario, who was fairly injured thanks to the graveler.

After witnessing this, Lucario's trainer rushed to his pokémon as fast as he could, ignoring the pidgeot.

"Jump and use Dragon Pulse!" the man said whilst running.

Lucario obeyed, jumping above Charizard with a strong pain in his abs, and using Dragon pulse on the back of Charizard's neck as the dragon pokémon flew under him.

It was super effective. Charizard's attack ceased and he was thrown to the ground, sliding across the rocky environment.

The man jumped high above the ground, ready to deal the final blow, before being interrupted by the enemy's pidgeot, who dragged him even higher in the air, out of the slit.

The man was already getting tired and planned to end this as quickly as he could.

He grabbed the pidgeot's wings as hard as he could, he put his knee on the creature's chest and pulling his arms to his sides, preventing Pidgeot from flying.

Both began falling in the air, and Pidgeot constantly struggled, trying to escape the man's grip, but it was of no use; the man was stronger than him.

They started to fall, with their speed increasing at each passing second, with the man clenching his teeth with anger before shouting at the last second of the fall, crashing outside of the slit.

The impact they made when hitting the ground was enough to shake the earth beneath Lucario's feet.

The pidgeot wasn't dead. Instead, he only fainted, with a few broken bones from the impact. He was very well trained after all.

The man was surprised with the pidgeot's resistance, but led his attention to the three enemy trainers who were at the edge of the slit he was in.

Two were males, one covered in a brown hood, and the other covered with an orange hood. The third trainer was female, and had a white yellow hood.

"Who are you?!" the man shouted. "If you don't answer now your pokémon will never breathe again!"

"Stop!" the female trainer said. "We surrender!"

"Then call back your pokémon!" the man demanded.

The trainer with the orange hood commanded his charizard to retreat. His pokémon obeyed and brought the unconscious graveler with him.

The man jumped into the slit, grabbed his lucario and jumped back up, landing in front of the trainers. "What were you up to?" Lucario asked.

"We were desperate for food," the brown hooded trainer answered.

"We have very few resources," the orange hooded trainer added.

"And you thought it was worth the effort, even though you're near a huge forest with resources in it?" the man asked rhetorically. "As far as I can tell you're just worthless scavengers."

"You nearly killed one of our Pokémon!" the orange hooded trainer shouted.

"You gave me a reason to," the man responded, "You're not a victim. Besides, your pokémon are trained very well," the man noticed, "You have been like this for a while now, have you?"

"It wasn't our choice," the brow hooded trainer explained. "We were expelled from our village."

"And then decided to travel around the canyon," the man said sarcastically, "Flawless thinking!" he said whilst turning his back towards the trainers.

Lucario noticed his master's nose bleeding then realized: His master faced his back to the trainers in an attempt to hide the fact that his body was weaker, and injured.

"The village is inside this canyon," the brown hooded trainer said. "Who are you anyway?" he asked to the man.

"That's none of your concern," the man answered. "I'll let you go for now," he said then started walking towards the horizon, "I don't want to see your face ever again."

Lucario started following his master.

"Wait!" the yellow hooded trainer said. "You're strong enough, you can help us!" she exclaimed. "Our village leader is hated by the entire population! If we defeat him…"

"We don't care, honestly," Lucario said.

"They have resources," the brown hooded trainer said.

The man stopped. He needed to recover his energy after the battle; he strained his body too much.

"And you don't know where the village is," the orange hooded trainer added.

Lucario noticed his trainer look at him. The pokémon noticed what he should do, and then checked the aura from the three trainers.

"They speak the truth," Lucario said.

The man cleaned the blood from his nose, turned and tried to hide his weakness the best he could whilst saying:

"If you even think on trying something," he said with a serious tone, "You won't survive another day."

The three trainers nodded and they came to an agreement: the man would help them, and if they were to try something, they would die.

He wasn't helping them because he wanted any gold or physical reward; he didn't even care for the resources that much, he was only accepting the resources because he needed them.

All he could think of was the possibility of fame and his name known by many. This was also the perfect opportunity to get stronger.

They roamed on their feet until dawn then settled a campfire on one of the slits.

 **Author's note: Sorry for the short chapter, I could have put in another 500 more words but recently I have been really busy.**

 **To redeem myself, I'll be writing on weekends for the whole month!**


	6. Chapter 6

The campfire's flame tingled softly, and the man was paying attentions to its movements, feeling something familiar as its heat warmed his skin. They were dining, already preparing to sleep. Each pokémon was sitting beside their respective trainers; there was a calm silence in the air until the man asked:

"How far are we from the village?" he said whilst looking at the campfire.

"Around forty hours," the brown hooded trainer said.

The man nodded then noticed the yellow hooded trainer looking at him angrily, and then closed his eyes to meditate.

"What is your name?" the orange hooded trainer asked the man, pouring more soup into his own plate.

The man didn't respond.

"If we're going to be partners, we should at least know your name," the orange hooded trainer said.

The man ignored him again.

Charizard's trainer drank a portion of his soup then said:

"My name is Draco," the trainer said, "His name is Agathon," he said whilst pointing at the brown hooded trainer then pointed at the light yellow hooded trainer, "And her name is Melissa."

The man remained silent.

"We have to at least trust each other's names," Agathon said.

"We can't trust him at all…" Melissa whispered, looking at her pidgeot's injuries.

Agathon whispered back to her:

"He had his motives Melissa," he said, "You can't blame him. Besides, he'll kill us if we try anything," Agathon added.

"But still…" She put her hand in her pidgeot's right wing.

"Just this once Melissa," Agathon asked to her.

There was a brief moment of silence silence between them, until the man said:

"Alexander Augustus," the man said. "My name is Alexander Augustus."

Draco closed his eyes and smiled thinking: 'Finally some progress,' then looked at his charizard's face.

Charizard snarled in contempt.

"Why did you get expelled from the village?" Lucario asked.

"Melissa had the brilliant idea of-" Draco got punched by Melissa in the arm before he could continue.

"We challenged the leader," Agathon explained.

"Why?" Lucario asked.

"We told you, everyone hates him," Melissa said.

"What kind of pokémon does he have?" Augustus asked.

"A steelix, a blaziken, an alakasam, and an ampharos," Draco answered, "But there's something…" he looked at the ground, "…wrong with them."

"Wrong?" Augustus asked.

"They could transform," Melissa said, "And they got stronger when transformed, much stronger."

"Transform?" Lucario asked.

"Yes," Agathon said. "Their appearance changed, and their powers were immensely boosted."

"But how did they transform?" Augustus asked.

"They had collars around them," Melissa answered, "There were strange pearls in these collars," she answered. "These pearls gleamed before the one who wore them transformed."

"And after transforming, the collars were gone," Draco added.

"How strong were they?" Lucario asked.

"Stronger than anything I've ever seen before," Agathon claimed. "But you've proven yourself strong enough," he added.

"Only the leader took us three without flinching, but you…" Draco said, "… you took us three with only one pokémon."

"With your help we can prove he's not invincible," Agathon said, "We can give the population hope and take him off his leadership!"

"And how exactly am I going to do that?" asked Augustus. "He has a psychic," he added, "I am in a huge disadvantage."

" _My father_ has a Tyranitar, psychic moves have no effect on him," Melissa claimed, proudly, "The problem is getting him to join us."

"Why is it a problem?" Lucario asked.

"Because he's friends with the leader," she answered, "They grew up together."

"He is one of the few people that like the leader," Draco said.

"You're his daughter," Augustus said to Melissa. "Convincing him is up to you."

"I'm not sure he'll agree," Melissa said, "I think he respects the leader more than he loves me."

"We'll manage," Lucario said.

"I hope so," Draco said.

"We're forty hours from there," Augustus said, "We should be resting right now."

"You're right." Draco nodded.

Everyone agreed. They needed to rest before they could fight the leader, and to save the few resources they had. They had only enough for two days.

Luario felt uneasy to sleep that night; Augustus's aura had increased by on third of what it was before. Not only his aura was increasing rapidly, but the rate it was increasing rose as well.

Augustus had no idea how much aura he possessed in his current state, nor how much of a threat he would be if he was to use all of it. But Augustus felt Lucario's discomfort, and asked him before sleeping aswell:

"What is it that is bothering you?" Augustus asked Lucario.

Lucario hesitated for a moment, but confessed:

"Your aura has a huge pressure," he said, "It's almost overwhelming."

"Isn't that supposed to be good?" Augustus asked, confused.

"I just feel like it's dangerous," Lucario responded, "Are you sure you can control it?"

"Of course," Augustus answered, "Don't be bothered with me, focus on your own strength, and I'll focus on mine."

Lucario nodded and got ready to sleep.

Augustus repeated Lucario's phrase in his mind: 'Are you sure you can control it?' he thought to himself, 'Can you control it?'

Augustus clenched his fist. He didn't want to think about it too much, but now that Lucario mentioned it, his very presence being almost overwhelming? Is that a good thing?

He ignored that thought and got ready to sleep aswell.

They woke up late the next morning feeling well rested, then proceeded towards the village.

They spent the next twenty four hours travelling by air, with Augustus jumping between slits whilst carrying his lucario, Melissa's pidgeot carrying both graveler and her trainer and Charizard carrying both Draco and Agathon.

They settled a campfire at night, ate the last meal they could with the few resources they had and proceeded towards the village once more.

After sixteen hours of travel, Augustus started to see the top of wooden buildings, inside a deep and huge slit in the canyon, making nearly a whole city, with water, a market center, houses, motels and all kinds of wooden/metal buildings. Augustus could barely believe that was considered a village.

Agathon made a signal asking Augustus to stop. Augustus obeyed, landing and letting go of his Pokémon.

"What is it?" Augustus asked.

"We're banned, remember?" Agathon explained. "They can't see us getting in."

"Brilliance!" Lucario said, sarcastically.

"Oh yeah!" Draco said, "We didn't think of that one did we?" he asked, landing with his charizard.

"Are you kidding me?" Melissa asked then ordered her pidgeot to land. "You came back without a plan?"

"You guys seriously don't remember Martha?" Agathon asked the two hooded trainers.

"What?" Lucario asked.

Both Melissa and Draco made confused faces whilst trying to remember where they heard that name. Eventually, Draco remembered.

"Martha!" Draco said whilst pointing at Melissa, "You've got to remember her!"

Melissa got even more confused, before remembering aswell.

"Oh! That one lady?" Melissa asked.

"What are you talking about?" Augustus asked.

"Yes that one!" Draco said with enthusiasm. "Remember what she always told us?"

"You can always count on Martha!" Agathon and Melissa said together.

"Who the hell is Martha?!" Lucario asked.

"They thought about something," Augustus told Lucario, "Let it flow."

"Let's go see Martha then!" Melissa said.

"You're a genius Agathon!" Draco said.

The three trainers flew with their pokémon towards a distant slit, which didn't connect to the "village".

"I don't even…" Lucario stopped mid phrase.

"Roll with it," Augustus said.

They reached the slit. It had a strange green lake inside it, and a single, simple, house of wood.

The trainers landed with their Pokémon and walked towards the house, knoking on the door upon reaching it.

"Martha!" Draco said, "It's us!"

There was a brief moment of silence inside the slit. Eventually, however, the door was opened by a tiny old lady.

The lady remained silent, then had her face slowly twist onto happiness, with her smile reaching the top of her cheeks.

Augustus did the best not to laugh, but all he managed was try to suppress his extremely confused grin.

Augustus had two whole meters in height, while Martha had only half a meter.

"Come in my children! You must be starving!" Martha said then looked at Augustus, who was still smiling, "And you brought a friend with you. That's great news!"

They entered and took a seat inside the house of the kind old lady while the pokémon waited outside. It was a simple construct with basic furniture; nothing of high value inside the house, with an already prepared dinner.

"I'm so glad you came back," Martha said, offering a plate to each of the visitors, "I thought you three were killed by the leader!"

"We escaped," Draco said, taking his plate from the table "But we found someone that can beat him!" Draco pointed at Augustus.

Martha's expression changed from happy to shocked, "You plan on challenging him again?" she asked. "I can't let you! I can't lose you three again!"

"You haven't witnessed what he can do," Agathon said, "He's stronger than the leader's pokémon when they're not transformed."

"When they're not transformed!" Martha quoted "He'll certainly kill you this time!"

"No, since we have him!" Melissa pointed at Augustus. "He's the answer!"

"No one can defeat him, it's hopeless!" Martha said.

"We can!" Agathon claimed. "But we can't do this alone. We need your help," he added, "And Melissa's father's."

"Is it because of his tyranitar?" Martha asked. "You can't convince him, he'll give you up to the leader, and then…" Martha hesitated, looking at the ground.

Augustus closed his eyes, let out a sigh then said:

"Ma'am" Augustus said, lifting himself from his chair, "What will convince you that they have the potential required?" he asked, "I've been through the harshest of paths; I've trained my whole life in order to achieve the ultimate power," Augustus continued whilst walking behind the three trainers. "I've fought these three; they've proven themselves to have immense potential." He put his hand in Draco's shoulder. "They're trying to tell you they won't fail, that they are strong enough, and believe me-" Augustus looked towards the three young trainers, "-they are! I've seen it myself," Augustus said, smiling, and then looked into Martha's eyes. "If you don't trust me, trust them."

Martha stood there in silence, reflecting on her thoughts.

She wanted the three's safety, she couldn't see them go through another death risk, but she also wanted the freedom of the townsfolk. She always desired for a chance to take that horrible man off his throne, to end his dictatorship towards the people. She always prayed for a savior to come to them. If that man was what he claimed to be, then the time had come; the moment she always waited for had finally come, and if she was to refuse, there wouldn't be a second chance.

"What do you need?" Martha asked with discouragement.

"Not much…" Agathon said.


	7. Chapter 7

They slept in the old lady's house and woke up early in the morning the next day, already preparing to go to the small town.

The three males waited outside with the pokémon, while Martha and Melissa were inside the house; Martha was dressing up and Melissa was assisting the old lady whilst dressing up herself.

"Agathon said you needed your fater's help hmm?" Martha asked Melissa, dressing up as she got ready to visit the town. "Are you sure you can convince him?"

"Yes," Melissa answered, picking up her robes, "I don't think he witnessed what the leader does secretly." She put her robes on.

"What do you mean 'secretly'?" Martha asked Melissa again.

"He…" Melissa stopped, remembering a horrific image she witnessed within the leader's personal catacombs. "If we can show him what the leader does, he'll certainly turn to our side."

"What did you see Melissa?" Martha asked, concerned with the girl.

She didn't respond. Melissa only walked towards the exit then said:

"Please, let's just go," Melissa asked to Martha.

Martha nodded and left the house. She was concerned about the girl, but she didn't want to force Melissa to anything she didn't want to. Martha put her headpiece on and left the house.

Augustus was meditating and standing straight. During the time he had his eyes closed, he had one thought inside his head: _Can you control it?_ _Will you be able to? Are they wrong?_ But his thoughts changed after he realized worrying would not help.

 _You must learn to control it. They need you. They trust you._

 _You have to learn. You can learn. You just need to focus…_

Augustus focused on his mind, nullified his senses, feeling only what was inside of him, until all he could hear was his breath and his heartbeat.

He focused on its rhythm; two beats every second; his inhale and exhale, always on repeated succession.

His heart began beating stronger. He could feel something else pulsating inside his veins, and his heartbeat got even stronger each second; to the point where he could feel his chest pumping.

"Alex, what are you waiting for?" Draco asked.

Augustus opened his eyes, surprised, and at the same time, confused about what happened. His heart began beating normally again, and everyone waited for him; Martha was riding a cart, carrying a big cage with a long folded canvas covering half of it. Everyone waited inside the big cage.

"Nothing," Augustus responded.

Lucario knew there was something wrong; he felt it in his master's aura.

"Get in," Martha said, "We can't be late."

Augustus obeyed and entered the cage, unfolding the canvas, covering the whole cage.

"So, why can't we be late?" Lucario asked.

"Because it's water refill day," Martha explained, "We'll use this as an opportunity to get in!"

"Water refill day?" Augustus asked

"There's a well in the town," Martha explained.

"Are you sure this will work?" Draco asked, unsure.

"Yes!" Martha answered, "The guards don't suspect a thing for me; I've always been nice to them."

"Fair enough," Augustus said.

Martha rode the cart right thorough a ramp at the end of the slit, riding with compassion while whistling along the way. They reached the city gates and everyone inside the cage could hear the conversation between the guards and the small old woman.

"So, Martha decided to show up again," One of the guards said, making a signal for her to stop. "It's been a long time!"

"Yes, yes! And you've been doing a really good job I see," Martha said.

"Thank you. We'll just check inside your cart okay?" Erasmus said then proceeded to check inside the cart.

"Could you please pass it this once?" Martha asked, "I've slept too much so I'm late for the water refill."

"Erasmus; It's Martha," The other guard said, "You can let her go. Whatever is inside the cart, it's of no harm," the other guard added.

Erasmus stopped, turned towards the other guard and said:

"Well, you're not wrong." Erasmus returned to his spot. "Just this once. Don't be late for the next one okay Martha?" Erasmus said then made a signal for the other guards to open the gates.

"Thank you!" Martha said whilst riding the cart towards the town, "I'll remember your tip!"

 **PS: Sorry I couldn't release chapters sooner.**

 **The thing is, I am in test week and trying to keep everything up is really stressful.**

 **Once all the work is done I will probably be able to write in my normal rhythm again.**

 **Sorry for the delay.**


	8. Chapter 8

Martha stayed in the right path for a while, but then turned to the wrong way. Everyone inside the cage couldn't see what path they were taking; they could only count on Martha about the instructions

"Where are we going exactly?" Draco whispered.

"Remember that secret passage that we always used when we got in trouble when we were kids?" Melissa whispered back.

"Oh, the one that we always used until we found out it connected to the chambers?" Agathon asked, whispering.

"Yes, that one," Melissa answered.

"Why are we heading there again?" Draco asked, "Didn't we swear never to go there again after what we found there?"

"Martha knows more about this town than anyone I've met," Agathon answered, "It might be our only way in."

Augustus and his lucario could feel the young trainers's aura, trembling with fear from a seemingly unknown reason. Filled with curiosity, Lucario asked:

"What did you find there?" Lucario had a nervous expression.

The trainers hesitated.

"The leader isn't kind, everyone knows that," Agathon said, "But there are things that most of the townsfolk don't know. After seeing the leader's hidden chambers, we tried to challenge him."

"And what's inside those chambers?" Augustus asked.

"Every two months, there is a ceremony on the town," Melissa said, seemingly ignoring Augustus's question, "At least one person is chosen by the leader to have a chance to travel around the world with his pokémon, receiving supplies and a personal map to travel safely across the canyon."

"And what's so bad about that?" Lucario asked.

"it's a lie," Agathon answered.

Augustus lifted one eyebrow slightly.

"I think we are the only ones that ever escaped the town," Draco claimed.

"So, everyone that has been chosen is being kept inside the chambers?" Augustus asked.

"No," Agathon answered. "Only the 'useless' ones. The others are being brainwashed," he added.

"The men are tortured inside the chambers until they have no other purpose than to serve the leader, becoming his personal bodyguard," Melissa said, "The beautiful women have their tongues cut off, then put into the bodyguards's personal harem," Melissa added, "The ones the leader finds the most beautiful are reserved to him solely for his own pleasure."

"And how did they keep this secret for so long?" Augustus asked.

"Anyone who finds out about the chambers is held prisoner inside the chambers," Agathon answered, "They are forced to live while suffering the biggest amount of pain the bodyguards can do to them," he added. "Let's just say they are being tortured for fun."

"And how did you find out about all this?" Lucario asked.

"One of the prisoners told us," Melissa answered.

"He was one of the people that tried to tell everyone about the chambers," Draco said.

"The leader wasn't aware that we knew about the information," Agathon said, "That's why he didn't kill us on the spot."

Augustus closed his eyes, processing all the information. The danger about this battle increased drastically; losing was unacceptable.

Augustus opened his eyes and asked:

"Are you sure your father will turn to our side?"

"He's the only one the leader hasn't brainwashed," Melissa said, "They are practically brothers."

"Her father is an honored man," Draco claimed, "But the leader managed to convince him that his dictatorship is the only way these people will stay in order."

"So, showing him the leader's catacombs will prove to your father that the leader is a massive liar," Lucario claimed.

"Exactly," Agathon said.

"And how do we get to your father?" Augustus asked Melissa.

"The leader let my father live outside the leader's base," she answered, "Probably because he would find out about the catacombs if he lived inside the base."

"And why are we going towards the secret passage if we have to find your father?" asked Augustus.

"The passage connects to both the catacombs and my old house," Melissa explained.

"Then you lived with your father," Lucario noted. "But wait, wouldn't that mean you could have shown him earlier?" he asked.

"He wouldn't listen to me," she explained, "He'll definitely trust me this time, or you," Melissa said, pointing at Augustus.

"Why would he-" Augustus got interrupted by Martha's warning.

"We're here!" Martha said.

Everyone descended from the cart. Augustus noticed they were in an alley, with metal walls surrounding them except for behind and above. Augustus and Lucario were confused for a moment, and then Draco proceeded to touch a certain spot on the wall.

"This is something not even the leader knows about," Draco said, pushing his palm against the right wall.

A chunk of the wall in the shape of a rectangle fell over, revealing a tunnel large enough so that even Augustus could walk freely on it.

"Let us move," Melissa said, "I want to get this over with."

Everyone entered the tunnel, thinking of every argument possible to convince Melissa's father, until Melissa felt something was missing. She stopped and turned around; Martha was still hadn't entered the tunnel.

"I'm not going," Martha said, "I need to get the water refill, or else they'll suspect about me, and will eventually find out what we did."

Agathon nodded and said: "We understand."

Draco disagreed: "She's the kindest and most honest person around the town! Melissa's father will definitively agree to come with us if she's around!" Draco claimed.

"But she's right you know," Agathon said.

"Exactly," Melissa stated. "Let's just hurry up."

Draco hesitated for a moment, looking at Martha.

"I have to go," Martha said.

Draco closed his eyes and nodded, proceeding to walk inside the tunnel.

They walked across the tunnel casually. It was a very dark place without natural light and seemed to go always downwards; the only way they could see was because of charizard's fire, which lit a torch for them. Eventually, they came across two different paths; the three trainers entered the right path, with Augustus and Lucario following right after.

"The other path leads to the catacombs, am I right?" Lucario asked.

"Yes," Melissa responded.

The path (which was a straightly carved rock tunnel) let to an underground cave, big enough so that it had a small natural river and waterfall, with its own set of rock paths.

Augustus could feel trembling auras at around two hundred meters away from them, but he couldn't distinguish what they were feeling nor how many of them were the pulses were too weak. Lucario noted the auras, and since he was far more experienced on the matter than his master, he could at least distinguish how many of them were: only two.

"Can you feel them?" Lucario asked his master.

"Yes," Augustus responded. "How many of them?"

"Two," Lucario answered.

Charizard snarled with confusion. Melissa noted the two talking and asked:

"What are you talking about?"

"We can feel two auras at a moderate distance," Lucario answered Melissa.

"That means we're getting close!" Draco said.

"Does your father live alone?" Augustus asked.

"Yes," Melissa responded, "The only company he ever has is his tyranitar, who is always by his side."

Charizard snarled angrily, as if saying _hurry up!_

"Allrigh allright, we get it!" Draco said. "Let's just move; I don't like damp places."

Pidgeot also didn't like the atmosphere of that place.

They increased their pace; they also wanted to get to Melissa's father quickly.

After a while they reached another straight tunnel, which seemed to go to the exact location of the two auras that Lucario and Augustus felt.

"For the last time, are you sure you can convince him?" Agathon asked Melissa, worried.

"Yes, I'm sure," Melissa responded, confident about herself.

As they roamed further inside the tunnel, Lucario could distinguish the auras more clearly.

"I don't think we have to," Lucario stated, "He seems enraged about someone."

"What?" Melissa was confused.

"Are you sure he never found out about this place?" Augustus asked her.

Melissa hesitated. Besides everything she did to hide that path, there was still a possibility that her father had found it.

"Wouldn't that mean he might be enraged with **us**?" Agathon asked.

"I'm certain his rage is directed to something else," Augustus said. "He shares a certain worry about something too; probably you," Lucario said, pointing at Melissa.

"We're here," Agathon said, looking at the end of the tunnel.

A white wall rested at the end of the tunnel, which showed signs of being broken recently.

"He clearly passed through here," Draco stated.

Draco went first, pushing the white wall, opening a hole which led to Melissa's old bedroom.

Charizard ran over his trainer in order to exit the tunnel, stretching his arms and growling in relief for being out of the tunnel. Draco let out a cry in pain because the ninety kg charizard was standing on top of him.

Pidgeot stretched its wings happily as it got out of the tunnel. Melissa had a really nostalgic feeling running across her body. She missed this room so much.

Agathon was analyzing the room as soon as he got out. He was never invited to Melissa's house, much less her bedroom. His graveler was slightly wet because of the atmosphere of the previous tunnel, but it didn't care. Graveler was never really worried about anything.

Everything that Augustus and Lucario had in mind was the two auras getting closer to the bedroom, already at the door.

The doorknob twisted. Everyone switched attentions towards the door as it slowly opened, as if who was opening it was unsure about who waited inside the room.

The door was now fully open, revealing a five point nine foot man around his fifties, with a white stubble beard and white clothes, adorned with light strokes of green and black, and a tyranitar right behind him.

"Melissa?" the father asked. "What are you doing here?" The father walked towards his daughter.

"I've come here to convince you to help us! We need your hel-" Melissa stopped as she got surprised by her father's hug.

"I thought you had been captured," the father said while holding his arms around his daughter.

"You've let me worried so much!" The father tightened his hug. "I thought you were being tortured by him…"

At this point, everyone knew that he had seen the catacombs already.

"So…" Melissa took her father's arms off her. "…are you on my side?"

Her father's expression went from worried to a serious. He held her hands together then said:

"I'd do anything to watch **him** suffer." Her father looked directly into her eyes.

He turned his eyes, finally noticing the other people in the room. He recognized the two infant trainers together with their pokémon, but he was unfamiliar with the two meter tall man and his Lucario.

"And who is he?" the father asked Melissa.

"He's the one who can defeat the leader!" Melissa claimed proudly.

The father got confused. _Defeat?_ He thought. _Is that even possible?_

"And how will he do that with only one lucario?" he asked.

"He's strong on his own," Agathon said.

"On his own?" The father was confused.

"Yes," Draco affirmed. "We're sure that, with his help, we can defeat the leader."

"Of course, we need your help," Melissa said.

The father got up and asked, without taking his eyes off Augustus: "And how are you sure we can trust him?"

"It's a long story…" Melissa said.

"I have plenty of time," her father responded.

"He never even knew about the village," Draco said. "After we lost to the leader, we escaped, and when we were running out of resources, we found him." Draco pointed at Augustus.

"I don't have anything against you, and I swear to do no harm to who is close to you," Augustus said, walking towards the father.

He stopped in front of the father, raising his hand, offering a handshake.

"I am here to help," Augustus said.

The father didn't respond for a moment, but then decided to say:

"I'll trust you for now." They shook hands, but the father pulled Augustus thorough his arm, following with a warning: "If you do anything to her, I'll pursue you to the ends of this god forsaken earth."

Augustus nodded calmly, and the father released his grip.

"Then tell me your name," the father demanded.

"Alexander Augustus," Augustus said.

"Acacius Clemon," The father said. "And I need you to prove me you're strong enough," Acacius continued, "I trust my daughter, but she has made mistakes in the past."

"As you wish." Augustus smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

Acacius invited Draco and Agathon for a meal, leaving the house with his tyranitar and the steel/fighting type trainer together with his pokémon. Melissa stayed inside the house to give company to her collegues.

They were outside of the slits. Acacius brought them to a distant place, far enough so that no one would be able to hear a battle.

"I know your Pokémon has a massive advantage against mine," Acacius stated, "But it's you who I want to fight," he continued, "And Tyranitar seems excited about you."

Augustus nodded.

Both Acacius and Lucario stayed at a moderate distance from both the towering man and the tyranitar in a safety precaution.

Augustus thought about what he felt back in Martha's house, closing his eyes and starting to breathe heavily.

" _Focus,"_ Augustus thought.

Lucario felt uneasy. His master's aura was getting stronger with each second, and he could feel the strength of Augustus's heartbeats from meters away.

Augustus opened his eyes, demanding the command of tyranitar's attack. He had no iris, nor pupils.

Acacius could already sense something coming, but commanded the attack anyways.

"Giga impact," Acacius commanded.

Tyranitar roared and rushed at Augustus with all its might; its stomps seemed to generate earthquakes, getting closer and closer at each moment.

Augustus prepared himself, bending his knees and opening his palms, clenching his teeth while readying for impact. Tyranitar attacked with his head.

Tyranitar's weight didn't help; after the impact, all Augustus could do was try to hold it back, being dragged across the landscape from the sheer force of the pokémon.

Lucario was worried; the tyranitar wasn't holding even if his opponent was human, instead it actually seemed to be more ferocious than any other pokémon would be in that situation.

Eventually, the tyranitar's stamina ended after the long sprint of his Giga impact, and he was unable to move after the attack, slowly recovering his stamina.

Augustus looked directly towards Tyranitar's eyes, clenching his fist and grappling the pokémon's neck with the other hand, preventing its escape, with his fist suddenly being engulfed in blue flames. Pulling his clenched fist all the way behind him, he stepped forward, ready to deal the one blow to finish off the opponent pokémon, until he felt Lucario's palm touch his shoulder, then stopped.

He looked towards Lucario's face and, only after seeing his expression, realized why Lucario stopped him.

Augustus resembled a steel/fighting type Pokémon; his punch was going to have four times the damage he would normally deal on the tyranitar. Should that punch have connected, he would have killed the poor bastard.

Augustus let go of Tyranitar's neck. The pokémon was sweating with wide open eyes.

Acacius was surprised; he had no words to speak. He honestly thought that the man would at least be injured, but he escaped unscathed, unharmed.

The man turned towards Acacius and asked: "Do you believe her now?"

"I've always believed her; I couldn't believe **you** , but not more," Acacius responded, walking towards the other trainer. "What kind of path did you follow? What are you anyways?" He asked while still walking.

"I've followed my ambition. That is all," Augustus answered.

"I will ask no more. As long as you're on our side, you are welcome," Acacius said then stopped beside his Pokémon, petting its head, trying to calm it down.

"So, when do we leave?" Lucario asked.

"My tyranitar has been in very low action recently," Acacius said, walking his way home, with Tyranitar following right after. "I think with one week of training he'll be in perfect form."

Augustus and Tyranitar traded looks. Tyranitar's pride was broken; to have all of your power thrown at a human only for him to escape in perfect shape was devastating.

Augustus and Lucario also started following the father.

Augustus thought about everything he heard about the leader. What that man had done was inhuman, and he would not show mercy upon Augustus, should he emerge victorious.

He realized his offer for help wouldn't just be a small challenge that some three kids couldn't handle; his life (and probably everyone else's) would be at risk. Should he fail, everyone dies immediately, or worse.

' _Focus…'_ he thought. ' _Do what you must.'_

They arrived at the house, with the trainers simultaneously abandoning whatever they were doing to ask information about the battle.

"How many hits did he take?!" Agathon asked.

"What attacks did you use?!" Draco asked

"How many hits did he **land**?!" Melissa asked.

"Not a single one my dear," Acacius answered Melissa. "I don't want my pokémon dead."

"What do you mean?!" Draco asked.

"He's just like his own Pokémon, except with more power, much more power," Acacius stated.

"Like a machamp?!" Agathon asked.

"Ah no, no…"Augustus said, laughing, "I'm not that strong, yet."

"And we agreed on going by next week," Acacius said, "But I can't let you three fight him. Once we head in, you'll all leave this house; take whatever you need."

The three got up immediately.

"We challenged him before, and we'll challenge him a thousand times more if necessary," Draco said.

"This village is all we have, we won't find anywhere else we could live," Agathon said.

"And even if we escaped, he'll definitively find out about us," Melissa said. "He has a psychic; he will read your mind, and he'll seek for us anyways."

"I won't risk your lives, is that clear?" Acacius said.

"Our lives are already in danger; we can't escape this fight anymore," Agathon said.

Acacius thought about it. Even their pokémon seemed extremely willing for battle. His daughter was right; the leader would seek for them anyways, and if he lost, their lives would still be in danger, thanks to that alakazam.

He hesitated, but eventually agreed.

"Fine, but if you see there's not even the slightest chance of victory, you'll run ok?" Acacius demanded.

"Whatever you say dad," Melissa said.

"We'll train for this whole week. This will be the harshest training you'll ever receive, understood?" Acacius asked.

"Yes, understood," the three said simultaneously.

"Then go to sleep. This will be a long week," Acacius ordered.

It was getting late, so three obeyed and prepared to sleep. Melissa slept in her bedroom; Agathon and Draco slept wherever they could lie down; Augustus and his lucario slept whilst meditating, and Acacius slept in his own bedroom.

Augustus was feeling something he never felt before: the fear of death.

That leader's pokémon could transform, but what did it mean? The trainers said that they were the most powerful thing they've ever seen even after fighting Augustus himself. That leader was the most powerful opponent he would ever face.

His feeling was replaced by pure anger towards himself. There it was again, the anger of being weak, of being afraid. The same reasoning which fueled his ambition was back at its full potential again, and all he could think of was getting stronger, far stronger than what he could ever achieve with the methods he used before.

He planned to go beyond himself this time, and he couldn't wait to do what he wanted; he couldn't wait to get stronger; he wanted to take off whatever weight was forcing him down. He wanted to shatter his limits completely, and he would do anything to get that objective.

He stopped meditating and walked towards the exit.

* * *

The three trainers and the father woke up only to find Augustus's lucario, but the man himself was nowhere to be seen. Even Lucario was confused about where did his master go.

"Where is he?!" Acacius asked angrily. "Did he go to warn the leader?! Is he betraying us?!"

"No! He would never do that!" Lucario said.

"Then tell me! Where is that coward?!" Acacius asked again.

"I don't know! He-" Lucario stopped after catching a glimpse of his master's aura, then looked outside.

"What is it?!" Draco asked.

"He went outside. He's probably…" Lucario walked towards the door.

"What is he doing?" Melissa asked.

"Last night I felt his aura fill itself with hatred towards something personal," Lucario stated, "He's probably… No; he _**is**_ training right _**now**_."

"Then where is he?" Acacius asked.

"Follow me and I'll show you," Lucario said.

The father looked at the kids, hesitating for a bit. He couldn't know if he should trust the pokémon or no, but he eventually looked at Lucario and said:

" _ **I'm**_ going with you."

"What about us?" Agathon asked.

"You stay here, I'll look this up for myself," Agathon responded.

Acacius whistled towards his Pokémon and followed the lucario.

After the door was closed the three trainers started whispering to eachother.

"We're going to follow them anyway right?" Draco asked

Draco's charizard facepalmed. Even after everything they went thorough after getting into trouble, they wanted to risk entering **another** trouble.

"Oh come on Charizard!" Draco said, "This is a minor problem, besides, everyone wants to see what Alex is doing!"

"So, we're going anyway, right?" Melissa asked.

"Yep, even though it's not the smartest idea," Agathon stated.

Pidgeot had a worried expression and Graveler couldn't care less. Eventually, Charizard stopped caring too, leaving it pretty obvious thanks to his expression.

"Let's just go then!" Draco said.

The three just looked through the window, waiting for Lucario and his followers to be really far away then exited the house, sneaking through the rocky environment, going behind one rock to another every once in a while.

Meanwhile, Acacius kept thinking to himself. He knew that even if he tried to destroy the other pokemon now, he would be in a massive disadvantage. So he decided to just follow Lucario, being this a trap or not.

It was a long walk; about three hours later Acacius's suspects became ever bigger, and he was considering heavily in engaging combat at that moment.

"How can I trust yo-" Acacius stopped speaking; Lucario was shocked about something in front of him. He looked at his tyranitar and even his pokémon was shocked.

They were at the border of an immense slit, and when Acacius looked inside the slit, he understood the reason of the pokémon's expressions.

The other side of the slit had an obviously artificial path towards the slit right after it. Augustus had his back faced towards the observers. The path was an immense crater which completely separated the border of the slit he was in, creating a huge gap between the left side of the border and the right side, in around twenty meters in diameter.

Augustus's pokémon rushed to see his trainer, worried about what consequences of this feat would have in his master's body.

His master's arms were completely engulfed in pure, visible aura; dancing around his arms like a wild fire that couldn't be extinguished. His injuries were obvious, but again, he would do anything to get stronger. Instead of attending his pokémon's call, he just walked to his right, in the direction of the border of the gap he created.

"Master, what are you doing?!"Lucario asked.

"He's not someone we can beat Lucario. Not _**yet**_ ," Augustus said, still walking.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Lucario asked.

"This is who I am. No sacrifice will lead to no progress," The man said, clenching his fist. "These were my thoughts from the start."

Augustus started punching the border, destroying the rocks while trying to shape an giant boulder.

"This is going to kill you before you get stronger!" Lucario shouted, trying to put some sense into his master's mind.

"He'll kill them if I don't!" Augustus said, burying his fingers on the half carved boulder andLifting it onto his back.

"I can't allow it!" Huge chunks of blood dripped from Augustus's mouth whilst he spoke. His knees trembled for a moment as he clenched his now red teeth.

The trainers reached the border of the same slit the man was in, and were shocked from what Augustus was being capable of.

Everyone was speechless, but the most shocked individual was Lucario. Even after living with his master for all these years, he never saw this attitude from him: empathy.

Augustus began walking with the immense rock on his back. Each footstep resembled an earthquake; his legs trembled and his aura could be seen physically all around hi body.

"By the gods…" Acacius said the only words he could think of. His hopes finally rose; with that power, they might stand an actual fair chance

Augustus was engulfed in blue flames. The shirtless man had his own blood tattooed all around his chest, but he kept going, even with all the pain he was feeling.

"From the start I've been fighting myself..." he said, feeling his arms almost explode from the force he was making in order to keep the boulder up. "…But now, I feel like it's not enough!" he shouted. "You can see what that leader can do! He can control an entire population by pure authority! An authority he earned by being the strongest!"

Augustus stopped walking, and started lifting the boulder by slowly stretching his arms up.

"He's the only one I will fight that will require me beyond my limits!" He said, still stretching his arms. His aura got more intense with each second. The brightness, the intensity, the pressure, everything was getting stronger. He was pushing himself beyond what he could possibly do.

"This isn't just our life at sake! He'll give us a fate worse than death should we fail!"

His arms were completely stretched and Lucario felt what was like a sun in front of his eyes. His master's aura was blindingly bright. And the air pressure was almost throwing him out of his feet.

"We will not fail!" Augustus shouted, "I cannot allow it!"

Augustus held the boulder above him with one arm and prepared a punch with the other.

' _ **Focus!'**_ he thought before punching the huge rock as hard as he could, letting out a warcry in the process.

The impact shattered the rock into thousands of pieces, with a cloud of dust forming itself between the scattering shards of the boulder.

The dust covered the man completely, and his flame had disappeared inside the cloud of dust.

Everyone was speechless. The father had no idea the man was so determined in helping them. The trainers felt an empowering emotion from within them. They felt hope; they felt they could win.

Lucario could only think about his master's health. He never pushed himself this far.

As the cloud dissipated, the man's figure showed up from the dust, still holding his fist high above his head, almost completely covered in red.

Lucario held his master as he fell to the floor.

"Why are you so determined to do this?" Lucario asked, eyes wide opened, shocked.

"Because I fear for you…" Augustus whispered before blacking out.

Acacius walked towards the fallen man, never taking his eyes off Augustus. He stopped in front of Lucario, observing the man. He could feel nothing else but respect for that person:

"Take him to Martha," Acacius ordered. "She's the only one we can trust to take care of him."

Lucario was still looking at his master.

"Understood," Lucario said, taking his master on his back and bringing him on his back.

"See?! I told you he was strong on his own!" Melissa shouted, lifting her head abive the rock they were hiding.

"Lucario told me you three were following us!" Acacius shouted back. "You still disobeyed my order, but that's beside the point!" he continued. "You saw how determined this man is to protect you! And you won't stay behind will you?!"

"Never, sir!" Agathon and Draco shouted, lifting their heads too.

"Then your training begins right now!" Acacius shouted.


	10. Chapter 10

**I've been REALLY busy recently.**

 **Finals coming and all that. But i've been trying to write whenever i could, except that i'm really out of ideas recently.**

 **I'm trying to make quality over quantity, so much so thai i've already trashed 3 pages already. I will try to write whenever i can; the problem is that i'm really having problems on CREATIVITY, and school isn't helping at all.**

 **Hope you all understand.**

* * *

Augustus woke up with a pain spike striking his whole body, screaming for a brief moment and getting up before realizing where he was.

He was lying down on Martha's couch, with Martha and Lucario being the only ones in the room with him. Martha held a wet cloth, whose purpose was to probably to balance his body's temperature.

They all looked at each other, confused.

The pain stroke Augustus's body again; he fell to the floor, unable to move his body properly because of the intensity of the pain spike. Screaming with a heavily distorted voice, he rolled on the ground in an attempt to get up, but the pain didn't let him. All he could do was try to hold his chest, which seemed to be about to explode from something underneath trying to get out.

Lucario rushed to his master's aid, trying to help him as his master groaned, trying to get up with one hand, and the other trying to hold his chest.

Martha also tried to help Augustus before Lucario stopped her.

"Stand back!" Lucario ordered, making a gesture with his palm whilst holding his master's shoulder, "It's not safe!"

Augustus's psyche started to suddenly grow. As the man tried to control himself, his breathing was distorted, it didn't sound even remotely close to normal. He could feel heat from his breath, and he only got more worried when he realized he exhaled pure aura, just like a charizard would exhale fire.

Lucario held his master's face from the sides and looked directly into his blank, white eyes.

"Master! Focus, please!" He asked.

A moment of silence struck the room, and Augustus psyche started decreasing again, and the man stared at his own hand, observing the way he turned back to normal.

After Augustus's psyche and expression had returned to normal, he remained silent, and so did everyone else in the room.

Augustus started snickering, still staring at his own hand before closing his eyes and putting his other palm in his face.

"Master… What's so funny?" Lucario asked.

"The irony," Augustus responded. "I've trained all my life to acquire a power to go beyond what every living creature would be able to," Augustus rested his arms, "And now I feel like it is a burden upon me."

"Not if you use it correctly," Lucario said.

" **That's** the problem," Augustus responded, looking at his Pokémon. "Not if you keep up like this," Lucario said, helping his master stand up, "I know you want to get stronger, but this isn't the way to do it."

Alexander was now standing up perfectly, but every bit of his body hurt. He looked at Martha and apologized.

"I'm sorry," Augustus said, "I've made a foolish act."

"Your pokémon told me," Martha said, "it wasn't foolish and no one can blame you; you've been under a lot of pressure recently."

Augustus chuckled.

"Thanks for the kind words Martha," Augustus thanked the lady.

Alexander suddenly remembered about the trainers, changing his expression for a moment and looked directly at Lucario.

"How are they doing?" Augustus asked with a high voice.

"Wha- Oh," Lucario understood, "They've been training nonstop thanks to you."

"Where are they?" Augustus asked.

"At the same place you blacked out," Martha answered, "Acacius has been training them very harshly recently," Martha continued, clearly worried about the trainer's comfort.

Alexander remembered about another detail he needed to ask.

"For how long I've been unconscious?" Augustus asked.

They hesitated for a bit; that was the last thing they wanted to answer.

"Five days…" Lucario said.

Augustus's expression slowly twisted from happy to serious while turning his neck to face his pokémon. They just stood there in silence, staring at each other.

Augustus rushed outside to see the trainers' progress.

"That isn't a good idea!" Martha shouted from inside the house.

Augustus ignored Martha's advice and kept running, but he was stopped by Lucario, who jumped in front of him.

"You're not even got close to being completely recovered!" Lucario stated.

"I'm going there and you're **not** stopping me," Alexander said.

"Fine by me, but I'm at least coming with you," Lucario said, "And you **won't** try anything stupid like last time."

Alexander noted that Lucario was pretty confident, and with a good reason. His aura was much stronger than before, and Augustus couldn't help but smile.

"You…" Augustus said happily.

Lucario smiled aswell.

"You've noticed haven't you?" he asked.

"Of course! Now, let's just see how they are doing," Augustus demanded.

Alexander flexed his knees and jumped out of the slit, landing above it.

"Oh, I forgot about you…" Augustus said, turning around to see his pokémon.

Lucario leaped above the slit and landed beside him. Augustus wasn't expecting this; he was incredibly surprised.

Lucario's leap wasn't as strong as Augustus's, but it seemed more controlled, not leaving a single trace of harm on the environment.

Surprised, Augustus smiled slightly to his partner.

"You'll show me everything you've learned," Augustus demanded, "I need to see it."

"You will," Lucario responded.

They started running to the trainers together.

* * *

Upon arrival, the man could see that the slit was covered in craters, obviously made by the trainers' pokémon, almost completely covering every corner of the slit.

Draco and Melissa were battling, shouting orders to their respective Pokémon whilst Acacius shouted corrections to their commands.

"Flame thrower!" Draco shouted.

Charizard used flame thrower at the nearby pidgeot, whose superior speed managed to dodge the attacks.

"Air slash!" Melissa shouted.

The pidgeot slashed the air with its fangs, hitting the charizard near the eye.

Both Pokémon struggled in the air with fast movements and attacks, biting and slashing their way through the aerial battle as they followed their respective trainer's commands.

"Your range is limited Draco!" Acacius warned the boy. "Your moves will not have as much effect in long range combat! Close the gap between you both if you want to hit your opponent!" Acacius then directed himself towards Melissa: "And you have the speed advantage Melissa! Use this to aid in your victory!"

Augustus landed on the slit, drawing everyone's attention as they all turned to look at the source of the noise.

"So he **is** bigger!" Draco noted.

"Watch out," Augustus said walking fowards, pointing behind Draco, smiling.

Charizard and Draco, whom were distracted, turned around and saw that their opponent was missing.

Augustus smiled and chuckled while crossing his arms, laughing at the failure Draco had committed.

"Oh, boy…" Lucario commented, putting his paws around his waist.

Draco understood what Melissa did, so he told his charizard another command:

"Smoke Screen!" Draco said.

Lucario lifted his eyebrows briefly.

Charizard breathed smoke from out of his mouth, aiming at the ground in order to spread the smoke equally around him, until he was completely covered in a cloud of smoke.

Charizard awaited the master's signal. The pidgeot had already advanced with his Sky Attack, flying through the air in an unbelievable speed. Draco waited for the right moment to give the command to his Pokémon.

"He's sure of himself," Lucario said, looking at his master.

"I already know what he's going to do," Augustus said without taking his eyes off Draco, "Risky move if you ask me."

"Inferno!" Draco shouted at the wrong moment.

Charizard blasted an immense ball of flames, aiming at the source of the sound the pidgeot made by cutting the air in its flight. Pidgeot barely dodged its attack; he would get hit if it wasn't for Melissa's order to evade just before.

"Of course…" Augustus said, closing his eyes and tilting his head downwards.

Pidgeot stabilized himself in the air, returning to his master right after.

Both pokémon were panting, tired from the training they have been doing.

"That's enough for now!" Acacius said. "And you, Draco, you turned your attention to something else in the middle of a battle. I don't even need to warn you why it would be fatal!"

"I'm sorry sir!" Draco shouted, bending in apology.

Both pokémon rested in relief, for they have been training for hours.

Agathon was beside Acacius, always paying attention to the fight and checking every detail. After the father had ordered the fight to stop, he blinked twice and then greeted the tall man and his pokémon. Walking towards the visitants of the slit, Agathon spoke:

"I'm sure you shouldn't harm yourself so badly on a training session!" Agathon said while walking.

"Yes, yes, I've been told enough about my stupidity today," Alexander said in a tired voice, releasing his crossed arms, walking towards the trainers and shaking his head whilst tilting it downwards, "But the thing here is you four." Augustus stopped, resting his hands on his waist. "You're much stronger than before."

"You look far stronger than before too!" Draco said, smiling.

"Hm?" Alexander looked at his body and realized his anatomy had increased.

"Oh, I didn't realize this before…" He said, checking his own body, which still felt immense pain.

"You blacked out for quite a long time…" Acacius stated.

"Yes, I'm aware," Augustus said, regaining his composure.

"So, do you want to train with us!?" Melissa asked, excited to see what the man could do.

Lucario immediately started waving his paw in front of his neck, indicating the girl that she shouldn't have asked that, and then he faked it as soon as Augustus turned his attention to him.

"No, thanks," Augustus said, still looking at his lucario then looked back at the trainers.

"He clearly isn't in the shape to train," Acacius said, looking at his daughter.

"I do want watch it though," Augustus said.

"Great, this way he'll learn the way you fight," Acacius said to the trainers, "For now we already trained enough. Take a rest."

The two trainers sighed in relief along with their Pokémon, walking towards the wall of the slit to rest in the rocks.


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't know what happened but my creativity decided to have a massive boost temporarily, so here it is ANOTHER chapter only two days later!**

 **(I was supposed to be studiyng for chemistry)**

* * *

Agathon's graveler was fighting Acacius's tyranitar.

Acacius ordered Dark pulse from Tyranitar, bur Agathon's graveler rolled out of the way.

Alexander was observing the fight with caution, never taking his eyes off the battle for a single second; Lucario and the others rested beside him.

Graveler used bulldoze on tyranitar, who tanked the damage and knocked graveler to the ground as soon as it recovered itself.

Graveler used rock blast but before reaching his foe, Tyranitar used Iron defense.

The attack hit four times, with Tyranitar blocking each hit with its arms crossed. As soon as the assault ceased, Tyranitar pushed Graveler back by opening his arms and roaring.

"This isn't even about fighting strategy anymore," Augustus commented, "This is about status. If you stop to think about it, Graveler stands little to no chance."

"That's not a nice thing to say…" Lucario said, "I mean, Graveler still has a good defense right?"

Tyranitar used earthquake.

"Oh boy…" Draco said

The attack was super effective, and while the attack was still ongoing, the two trainers held themselves in order to stand still. Augustus didn't even bother and kept paying attention.

Graveler was almost fainting, struggling to stand up.

"Fine, be that way…" Agathon said, "Superpower!"

Graveler used two of his arms to propel him forward, and delivered a devastating blow with the other two, dealing four times the normal damage directly into his opponent's face.

Tyranitar almost fainted aswell; stumbling backwards and shaking its head.

"Good," Acacius said, smiling slightly, then turned to his pokémon and commanded: "Crunch."

Graveler couldn't dodge that attack. Tyranitar rushed to his foe, who tried to roll away, and bit it firlmly, lifting his opponent upwards and tightening his jaw even more, before throwing it the other way with a rapid movement.

Graveler bounced and rolled across the environment, lying defeated on the ground, fainted.

"Didn't he go too harsh on him?" Melissa asked.

"It's wasn't as bad as it looks," Augustus said, lifting himself from his seat, "The more you get hurt, the more your body adapts to it."

"Is that how you're so strong?" Draco asked.

"Maybe…" He said.

Agathon seemed very disappointed with himself for losing. For a moment he thought he could win.

Augustus was walking in front of Agathon, telling him: "Never get cocky in a fight. You're smart; you should know that. Keep that in your mind for now."

Agathon nodded.

Alexander reached to the graveler and casually lifted it with one arm, resting it on his back and walking towards the border of the slit. Agathon followed.

Melissa reached to Draco and whispered: "Doesn't that thing weight a hundred pounds?"

"He exploded that huge gap in the slit that's right in front of us; what did you expect?" Draco whispered back.

Augustus carefully put Graveler down between some rocks; Agathon sat beside his pokémon, resting his hand on its forehead.

"I guess it's our turn for now," Augustus said, looking at Lucario.

Lucario got up; he was excited.

Acacius was also resting with the trainers, his tyranitar was panting. Acacius put his hand on his pokémon's shoulder and smiled slightly. Tyranitar appreciated his trainer's comfort, but he was still tired.

"I'll pass this one," Melissa said, still tired about her hours of training.

Draco looked at his charizard, smiling, excited about being the first one to try Augustu's training skills. Charizard sighed impatiently; he just wanted to get this over with.

"C'mon, lets-" Draco turned to look at the tall man but he saw nothing. Augustus was already on the center of the slit, waiting. "Allright…" Draco said, walking towards the center.

Augustus kneeled to warn his Pokémon.

"He's a flying fire type. Get ready," Augustus whispered.

"I know. Just don't be stupid and **maybe** I'll be fine," Lucario answered.

The man chuckled and got up, clenching his fist.

"Read his aura. See what he's planning," Augustus ordered.

Charizard attacked first, using flamethrower, but with a simple thought, Augustu's aura changed. Lucario red his master's aura and dodged with perfect sync.

"Swords dance," Augustus whispered.

Lucario's ear twitched, receiving the message.

"Get ready," Draco told his charizard, who adjusted its feet, ready to leap into the air.

Lucario focused and closed his eyes, increasing its attack sharply.

Charizard took advantage of his superior base speed and leaped towards his foe, opening its mouth filled with fire ready to use another flamethrower.

"Extreme speed," Augustus whispered.

Lucario rushed at an extremely advanced speed, jumping when he was beneath his foe and kicking its lower jaw, closing its mouth.

"Grapple," Augustus said.

Lucario used his momentum to grapple Charizard's neck from his back.

"Flare blitz!" Draco shouted.

Charizard cloaked itself in fire and aimed his back directly to the ground.

Augustus forgot about that move, and immediately told his pokémon to let go, but it was too late.

Lucario crashed to the ground, being stuck between the charizard and the floor, gasping and taking heavy damage, for it was super effective. Thankfully, it didn't have the full effect since it was not a direct **strike**. He let go of his grip and Charizard lifted himself from the crated formed in the impact. There were still small flames twinkling around the small crater.

"Get out of there!" Augustus shouted.

"Follow him and use heat wave!" Draco shouted shortly after.

Lucario backflipped to gain distance but as soon as he looked forwards his opponent was extremely close, at near point blank range.

"Get behind him and use quick attack," Augustus said.

Lucario jumped above his opponent at the last moment, dodging the heat wave and striking quickly with his elbow.

Charizard broke his own momentum with its wings, turning around quickly.

"Swords dance," Augustus ordered again.

Lucario increased his attack even further.

"You have more control of your aura than me. Close your eyes and rely on your senses," Augustus commanded.

Lucario hesitated, but obeyed.

Charizard used scary face, in an attempt to lower Lucario's speed. It had no effect, because Lucario's eyes were closed, and with the reading of his aura, he could see exactly what Draco was planning.

"Swords dance, once more," Alexander ordered.

Lucario clenched his jaw and paws whilst raising his attack to its maximum potential.

"Here we go," Lucario said, with seemingly bigger psyche.

"How the hell is he doing this?" Melissa said. "He's amazing!"

"Weren't you the first to doubt him back in that campfire we made?" Agathon asked.

"Shut your mouth," Melissa demanded.

"His strategy is to use priority moves that deal normal type damage," Acacius explained, observing the man fight, "His attacks will always come first even though Charizard is faster, besides, he increased his attack potential to its maximum, and Charizard has no special resistance to normal attacks."

"But he'll be in trouble if he gets hit," Melissa commented.

"That's why he told Lucario to rely on his senses," Agathon said, "It's far better than using your vision, besides, you can feel what your opponent feels, giving you a certain hint of what he will do next."

"Isn't that an advantage?" Melissa asked.

"In this particular case, yes, "Agathon answered, "It's a lucario, after all."

"What do you think would happen if it was Alexander fighting with his current power?" Melissa asked her father.

Acacius chuckled and said: "I have no idea…"

Draco had an idea; he reached to his pokémon and whispered him a command.

Charizard looked at his master, surprised, for he knew that move only as a charmander. He turned around and prepared.

Lucario saw his feelings of confidance, and decided to pay attention to charizard's stance.

"They feel confident," Lucario warned his master.

"Then I know what he's planning," Augustus said.

Lucario looked at his master, confused.

"Feign quick attack but use dragon pulse instead," Alexander whispered.

Lucario was still confused.

"Wait for a bit then go," Alexander whispered again.

Lucario nodded and waited.

Charizard also stood immobile.

The aura pokémon realized that if he didn't attack, nor would the charizard.

"Quick attack!" Alexander shouted.

"Flamethrower!" Draco shouted.

Charizard inhaled, charging a flamethrower, according to Draco's commands, while the lucario charged at his foe with all his might, trusting his master.

Just before charging dragon pulse, Lucario noticed that charizard's stance seemed familiar; he had the stance of a Counter move. He then understood why his master ordered dragon pulse.

Lucario charged his dragon pulse on his back with two paws, then released it in front of him, witnessing his foe's surprised expression.

The attack connected perfectly, sending charizard flying for a few meters back.

Draco cursed. He thought at least this would be able to land.

Lucario's repeated attacks had weakened Charizard greatly; Charizard was on a pinch.

"God damnit!" Draco said.

"Do you want to end this right now?" Alexander asked the other trainer.

"Not yet!" Draco said, "Stay with me Charizard! We just need to land another hit, he's vulnerable against us!"

Charizard snarled. He wouldn't give up as well.

"Sometimes it is better to just-"

"Not here, and not when confronting the leader!" Draco interrupted the man's speech.

Alexander closed his mouth; saying anything would be of no use.

"To the skies Charizard!" Draco ordered.

Charizard leaped to the air, stabilizing himself and keeping his eyes on his opponent from above.

Lucario was at half health thanks to Flare Blitz ad his opponent finally realized where he would have the advantage: In the air.

"Finally." Augustus looked to his lucario, "You'll have difficulties from now on."

"Oh wow, thanks," Lucario said sarcastically, "I had no idea."

"Flame burst!" Draco ordered.

"Bigger area of effect," Agathon commented.

Lucario red his opponent's aura to compensate for his inferior base speed stat and the splash damage of flame burst's attack, barely dodging his attacks as he repeatedly threw flames at Lucario.

"Quick attack," Augustus whispered.

"Got it!" Lucario said, jumping above one of Charizard's projectiles to hit him.

"Evade!" Draco commanded.

Charizard's speed allowed him to dodge just in time. His opponent flew by him.

"Flamethrower!" Draco ordered.

"Dragon pulse," Augustus calmly commanded.

Lucario charged his attack mid air just as his foe charged his. Both released each other's attacks at the same time; the attacks clashed in the air, exploding shortly after, making a cloud of smoke big enough that it reached the ground. However, a little bit of flamethrower's power escaped and hit Lucario in the shoulder, damaging him slightly.

Lucario landed perfectly on the ground, holding his shoulder because of the minor injury. Charizard kept flying, behind the dissipating cloud of smoke.

"Extreme speed, quickly," Augustus said, "He can't see behind that cloud, but you can."

Lucario's ear twitched once more, and he ran straight into the cloud of smoke. Once inside, he braked and leaped high above the ground, even higher than Charizard's current height.

Draco was nervous; once the cloud dissipated, the opponent pokémon was nowhere to be seen. Charizard was confused as well, looking everywhere on the ground beneath him in order to find his foe.

Alexander chuckled; the fight was over.

Lucario hit Charizard in the back of the head with both of his lower paws, sending him to the ground at a high velocity. Alexander leaped forward and landed Charizard on his arms, stopping his momentum with his legs as he carefully held his fallen foe on his arms.

Once he stopped, he was kneeling beside Draco, holding the boy's pokémon in his own arms, lifting himself slowly as he turned around to face his defeated opponent.

"You did well," Alexander said.

Draco was speechless. "How come you defeat someone who had a massive advantage over you?" Draco asked.

"I've been studying battles since I was a child." Augustus started walking to the border of the slit whilst still holding the Pokémon; Lucario and Draco followed.

"I trained my senses and body to surpass what any human could possibly do," He continued, "That Lucario right there was my partner for the whole journey. He's almost as strong as me now," He explained.

' _Not even close'_ Lucario thought.

Augustus carefully laid down Charizard on the rocks; He opened his mouth, about to suggest fighting Melissa next, but Acacius's expression made it obvious it wasn't an option for him, so he closed his mouth and kept silent.

"So…" Lucario clapped his palms once and held them together, switching his vision across the trainers. "…we rest?"

"We rest," Agathon said.


End file.
